leave them alone for 2 or 3 years.. then we will start shaping it ...

its job.. right now.. is to grow a root mass ...

ken

its job.. right now.. is to grow a root mass ...

==>> and the more leaves it has to process sun into food.. the faster it will happen ...

personally.. i would not fert such a small plant .... especially in fall.. in my MI ... no clue where you are ... i want the plant going dormant for winter.. not putting out lush growth which might not harden off properly ....

if i did decide to fert.. i might use 25% water soluble.. in spring ... but if you have reasonable soil.. i wouldnt even bother with that ... i have glacial sand.. so a bit of this or that wouldnt hurt ... in spring ...

it is not a child.. it, most likely, with good soil ..... it does not need to be fed.. educated.. etc ....

ken

Thanks Ken. I will leave them be with the exception of watering until established. They are native to Texas (I'm in Austin, TX) so I planted them assuming that once over the transplant shock, I could pretty much let them do their thing. Most natives here despise being babied with nice soil or nutrients so I've got that going for me. :)

I did see pots of them for sale at the big orange store. The 1gal pots had 3-4 well spaced trunks that I can only guess are 3-4 individual plants, so I think I may plant more in a ring of three to add to the potential fullness later on.

Thanks again.

Joanna

let it grow, make sure to give it lots of water.

Mama plant is pretty! Has she bloomed much this year?

No seedling advice, sorry, I'm just excited to see a Cenizo thread. :)

Mine are 12 yrs old now, and when I first planted them, decided to keep them limbed up, similar to my Crapes. Now I'm letting them be shrubs.

Letting shoots come up (they grow fast)--

Bee (the shrubs were covered in them, they found my picture taking annoying)--

Butterflies (there were 20+ flying around, it was pretty spectacular)--

Hi MizGG - The shrub it the pic is actually teucrium fruticans azureum, bush germander. Not the best picture. My big Cenizo has bloomed like crazy this year! Although, not a dense as yours...beautiful blooms. I love the butterfly shot. :)

Well, it's been 2 years almost to the date of transplanting my found Cenizo seedlings. I've avoided any trimming, supplemental watering, or fertilizing and left them to do their thing. Ken, do you think next spring would be a good time to trim them back to promote a denser growth? They have just begun to flower this year so I suspect they are happy in their new location.

I think technically they are root offshoots rather than seedlings. They started to appear after the "mother" plant was removed. I added new beds to the front near a neighbors Crape Myrtle and disturbed some roots I assumed were from the Crape. I am now seeing mini Crape Myrtles pop up in that location too.

- Joanna